Beah Richards
| birth_place = Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S. | death_date = September | death_place = Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S. | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1955–2000 | spouse = Hugh Harrell Jr. (divorced)}} Beah Richards (July 12, 1920 - September 14, 2000) was an American actress of stage, screen and television. She was also an African-American poet, playwright, and prose author, under the name "Beah E. Richards". Life Richrds was born Beulah Elizabeth Richardson in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Her mother was a seamstress and PTA advocate, and her father was a Baptist minister. In 1948, she graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and two years later moved to New York City. Her career started to take off in 1955 when she portrayed an 84-year-old-grandmother in the off-Broadway show Take a Giant Step. She often played the role of a mother or grandmother, and continued acting her entire life. She appeared in the original Broadway productions of Purlie Victorious, The Miracle Worker, and A Raisin in the Sun. Her notable movie performances include Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,Hurry Sundown, The Great White Hope, Beloved and In the Heat of the Night. She made numerous guest television appearances including recurrent roles on Beauty and the Beast, The Bill Cosby Show, Sanford and Son, Designing Women, The Practice, The Big Valley and ER (as Dr. Peter Benton's mother.) Death Richards died from emphysema in her hometown of Vicksburg, Mississippi at the age of 80. Recognition Richards was nominated for a Tony award for her 1965 performance in James Baldwin's The Amen Corner. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Sidney Poitier's mother in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner She won an Emmy Award twice, in 1988 for her appearance on the series Frank's Place, and in 2000 for her appearance on The Practice. Documentary In the last year of her life, Richards was the subject of a documentary created by actress Lisa Gay Hamilton. The documentary Beah: A Black Woman Speaks was created from over 70 hours of their conversations. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Film Festival. Publications Poetry *''A Black Woman Speaks: Of white womanhood, of white supremacy, of peace: A poem. New York: American Women for Peace, 1951. *A Black Woman Speaks, and other poems. Los Angeles: Inner City Press, 1974. Juvenile *''Keep Climbing, Girls (illustrated by R. Gregory Christie). New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Beah E. Richards, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 25, 2015. See also *African-American poets *List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems *"A Black Woman Speaks of White Womanhood" ;Books *Beah Richards at Amazon.com ;About *Beah Richards in Gale Contemporary Black Biography. *Beah Richards at Turner Classic Movies *Beah Richards July 12, 1920 - September 14, 2000 * * * * * "The last word has not been spoken" - Beah Richards Category:1920 births Category:2000 deaths Category:Actresses from Mississippi Category:African-American actresses Category:American film actresses Category:American poets Category:American stage actresses Category:American television actresses Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:Deaths from emphysema Category:Emmy Award winners Category:People from Vicksburg, Mississippi Category:Dillard University alumni Category:20th-century American actresses Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:African American female poets Category:American women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets